WARNING: There are spoilers ahead for the latest episode of The Flash.

Flashpoint

We’ve been waiting for this moment for five months and it did not disappoint. The moment Barry went back and saved his mom, I knew he had altered the timeline in a way that triggered this storyline. If you’re a fan of the comic, you have to appreciate how the CW was able to adapt it for television. The source material takes place on a such a large scale that one had to know major changes would happen. There’s no Aquaman fighting a world war with Wonder Woman, there’s no Thomas Wayne assuming the identity of Batman because his son was killed in a dark alley years ago, and there’s no frail Superman hidden away in a secret government facility.

To make up for these things that would have been impossible for the CW to use, we got a far more personal story of Barry Allen living the life that the Reverse Flash had taken from him. The best part of all this was seeing just how much Barry meant to the people around him. It was particularly difficult to see what had become of Joe. We knew from a summer of previews that Barry and Joe were not on the best of terms. We already saw that when Barry traveled to Earth-2, so I was expecting that to be a little redundant. Instead, we see just how much Joe adopting a young Barry changed his life. As I was watching, I imagined that the Joe we knew must have been on a dark path, but taking on the responsibility of caring for Barry saved his life. And that’s the best part of “Flashpoint.” Barry thinks that the Reverse Flash only changed his life, but that’s not the case. For the first time, we got to see just how the death of Nora Allen sent a ripple through everyone in Barry’s life.

Paradox

As we saw in the end, the Reverse Flash didn’t set things back the way they were supposed to be. In a way, this is the writers’ way of getting more out of the Flashpoint story while not dragging on the arc of Barry losing his memories and his powers. Joe and Iris are not talking, Cisco seems to be in a dark place, and we don’t know what has become of Caitlin. This will probably also affect the storylines of Arrow and Supergirl (we know it will affect Supergirl because this is how Kara Danvers ends up on Barry’s world and on the CW). It would neat if even for half an episode we see Arrow adopt the Batman story and have Oliver die on that island while Robert returns home and becomes the Green Arrow. Please let that happen.

Alchemy

There have been three villains known as Alchemy in the DC universe. In the comic, he’s able to transform elements into other elements, hence the name. He’s in possession of the Philosopher’s Stone (cue the Harry Potter jokes) which grants him his powers. If history is any indication, the writers will probably take elements of all three and merge them in one while also adding their own spin to the character.